You’ve probably already heard the incredible news about the 33 miners in Chile that were just saved after being stuck half a mile underground for over two months. What was accomplished was quite staggering but once you take in the feat, some interesting details emerge. Earlier we covered how the miners were sent PSPs to kill some time, and we also heard how Steve Jobs sent each miner an iPod. From the rescue footage, we see another bit of tech that was used: Panasonic’s Toughbook U1.

Above you can see a shot of the U1 handheld computer being used by rescue workers. You can read a name, “Osman Araya” from the display. Araya was the sixth miner rescued.

Here is another example of the U1 in use:

ABC News said that the Toughbook U1 (they didn’t mention it by name, but did picture it) was used by the miners as a monitoring device for heart rate and temperature. The device was apparently able to alert crews above ground if something went wrong.

Based on that information the left number was most likely the heart rate and the right was the temperature in Celsius. The image below shows those numbers at 72/18 while above they are 113/14.

Why go with the U1? I’m just speculating here, but size was definitely a factor. It also is fully ruggedized (Mil-Spec 810G an IP65-rated). Finally the computer has a hotswappable, dual battery design so batteries can be changed without having to power down the computer, which would be crucial for monitoring a person’s condition. The U1 can run for 9 hours on two batteries (about half that on one) which must have helped.